Lift trucks are designed in a variety of configurations to perform a variety of tasks. In one application, these tasks include the operation of a vertically movable platform to lift and lower a load, such as materials on a pallet into storage locations in a rack system having narrow aisles. Lift trucks especially suited for this application, such as a Raymond Corporation 9000 Series Swing-Reach® Trucks available from The Raymond Corporation, Greene, N.Y., have load handlers that can extend forks sideways relative to the trucks, i.e. into storage locations laterally adjacent to the truck direction of travel. These load handlers are typically rotatable 180degrees about a vertical axis in order to access rack storage positions on opposite sides of the truck.
Although these rotatable load handlers perform the required tasks in an exemplary manner, the mechanisms providing the rotating feature are complex and difficult to automate. Simplified, less complex load handlers can be more reliable and simpler to automate. It would therefore be desirable to provide a simplified load handler that can access rack storage positions on opposite sides of an aisle without having to rotate the entire load handler.